Past Events

April 21st, 2022

Ella Castanier (COL’24) presented her research at the 2022 Colloquium for Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities, which took place on April 21, 2022.

April 13th, 2022

Emily Mendenhall and Sarah S. Willen talked about “Flourishing and Health in Critical Perspective: An Invitation to Interdisciplinary Dialogue,” the first series of the Social Science & Medicine – Mental Health journal. The conversation centered around how interdisciplinary dialogue can improve the way we study flourishing and health – and the clinical and policy interventions we propose.

April 8th, 2022

Emily Mendenhall joined host Charity Nebbe to share what she learned when she studied the pandemic in her hometown — Okoboji —, for her book Unmasked: COVID, Community and the Case of Okoboji.

April 7th, 2022

On April 7, 2022, the Department of Art and Art History and Georgetown College will host a public dialogue around Toni-Lee Sangastiano’s Carnivalesque.

April 4th, 2022

On April 4 , 2022, the Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA) Program, in partnership with the Global Health Initiative and the Mortara Center for International Studies, will host The Annual Maloy Distinguished Lecture on Global Health. Join the panel discussion of Emily Mendenhall’s newest book, Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji.

March 28th, 2022

The Georgetown Medical Humanities Initiative was one of the sponsors of the 2022 Health Humanities Conference, which took place on March 25, 26 and 27, 2022, and was co-hosted by the Center for Health Humanities, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences; the Center for Literature and Medicine, Hiram College; and the Health, Medicine, and Society Program, Lehigh University.

March 19th, 2022

On March 19, 2022, Emily Mendenhall and Rebecca Katz met at the Politics and Prose independent bookstore to discuss her recently launched book, Unmasked.

March 2nd, 2022

Emily Mendenhall interviews medical anthropologist Lauren Carruth about her decades of work in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Carruth describes how she traveled around the country working on medical and humanitarian aid. She delves into the complexities through which love and liberation get revealed in the everyday work of local humanitarian laborers.

March 1st, 2022

On Tuesday, March 1 at 12:00 p.m., the MedStar Health Center for Wellbeing hosted its first LinkedIn Live.

March 1st, 2022

Lauren Carruth interviews Emily Mendenhall about how people in her hometown in northwest Iowa responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. She describes why people unmasked and how social relations within the community played out over the course of the pandemic. Many people were very cautious, while some people ignored public health recommendations for personal gain.

February 21st, 2022

The third episode of Stockdale Radio three-part series on brain science and technology in relation to military applications.

February 19th, 2022

Ella Castanier (COL’24) presented a paper at the 12th Annual Texas A&M History Graduate Student Organization History Conference, which took place on February 18 and 19, 2022.

February 14th, 2022

The second episode of Stockdale Radio three-part series on brain science and technology in relation to military applications.

February 14th, 2022

Emily Mendenhall interviews her longtime colleague Edna Bosire about her personal journey in the field of anthropology, and her work at the intersection of health, nutrition, anthropology, and health systems. Bosire also provides insights into her work as an ethnographer of health policy and systems in Malawi and in her work with Health Systems Global.

February 8th, 2022

This episode of the Scrub In podcast focuses on the new MedStar Health Center for Wellbeing. Host Crystal Morales, one of the leaders of this new Center, talks with Dr. Daniel Marchalik, its executive director.

February 7th, 2022

On Monday February 7, 2022, Dr. Christopher King, along with Amanda Michelle Gomez, moderated the “Race, Place, And Structural Racism: A Review Of Health And History In DC” discussion, hosted by Health Affairs. Dr. King provided historical background on the relationship between structural racism and historical events socially, economically, and politically disenfranchised Black residents in the District of Columbia, which have yielded stark differences in health outcomes by race and place.

February 7th, 2022

The first episode of Stockdale Radio three-part series on brain science and technology in relation to military applications.

December 9th, 2021

At the DC Health Equity Summit 2021, which was held on December 9, 2021, Dr. Christopher King moderated the discussion between Laura Zeilinger, Dr. Unique Morris-Hughes, Dr. Bren Elliott and Lupi Quinteros-Grady at the Pandemic Response & Insights panel.

November 22nd, 2021

On November 22, 2021, Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan presented her lecture “Medical Flaneurs: Cosmopolitan Paris and the American Clinical Imagination” in the Longfellow House Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site Fall Lecture Series: Histories of the Body in Art, Science, and Society.

November 9th, 2021

On November 9th, 2021, the Lannan Center presented a reading and talk featuring author Aminatta Forna and editor John Freeman to discuss her recently launched book, The Window Seat.

October 26th, 2021

Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan was a speaker at the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine’s 14th International Diagnostic Error in Medicine Conference. The event took place between October 25 and 27, 2021, with the theme of Reducing Disparities; Improving Diagnosis.

October 21st, 2021

Maggie Little moderated a panel on approaches to managing trustworthy AI as part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework workshop.

October 7th, 2021

During China’s formative era of pharmacy, poisons were strategically deployed as healing agents to cure everything from chills to pains to epidemics. Focusing on the early Tang period (7th and 8th centuries), in this talk Professor Yan Liu (SUNY-Buffalo) illustrates how the court regulated the use of poisons and commissioned new medical treatises to achieve effective governance.

September 21st, 2021

Virtual reading and conversation with one of the most awarded literary authors in Scandinavia, Finnish-Estonian novelist and playwright , Sofi Oksanen. Moderated by Lannan Center Director, Aminatta Forna.

September 20th, 2021

Discussion on medical and spiritual views on the meaning of the good life during the last stages of life. Speaking to the issue were Devan Stahl (Bioethics and Religion, Baylor University) and Michael Pottash (Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Georgetown University).

September 17th, 2021

Emily Mendenhall joins Merle Eisenberg and Lee Mordechai to discuss Covid in her hometown in northwest Iowa.

September 10th, 2021

In this episode of Scientific American’s podcast series “COVID, Quickly”, senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman explore Emily Mendenhall’s research on mask rejection in Okoboji, Iowa.

September 2nd, 2021

In the ASHA Voices podcast, Georgetown Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson, Dr. Christopher King and Dr. Deliya Wesley explained how the COVID-19 pandemic has been drawing public attention to disparities in care that have always existed, and they shared how clinicians can confront these inequities.

August 24th, 2021

Aminatta Forna speaks with the Always Take Notes hosts, Simon Akam and Rachel Lloyd, about her early work at the BBC, the similarities between creative non-fiction and fiction and her decision to take up a post at Georgetown University.

August 23rd, 2021

Aminatta Forna talks with Zeze Oriaikhi-Sao about about the impact words can have on people, why she thinks appropriation can cause great damage to the literary and arts world, and why the elevation of victimhood does nothing for actual progress.

August 13th, 2021

The 2021 Lisa J. Raines Grand Challenge Fellowship funded undergraduate students to conduct independent summer research projects engaging with the grand challenge of “Health and Humanity.” In addition to conducting their own projects, fellows came together as a cohort and shared their research, found exciting cross-disciplinary touch points, and learned from and network with faculty working in the field, including Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan, who presented her lecture “A Career in Medical Humanities: From the Archive to the Clinic.”

August 12th, 2021

A daily discussion of the COVID-19 pandemic featuring Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan and Dr. Lorenzo Servitje – hosted by Dr. Scott Gabriel Knowles, a historian of disasters at KAIST in Daejeon, South Korea.

July 29th, 2021

Timothy Newfield talks to Merle Eisenberg and Lee Mordechai about the connected histories of climate change and diseases that become pandemics, focusing on the early medieval and late antique periods.

May 22nd, 2020

Emily Mendenhall and Robert Like discuss the syndemic concept with host Mary O’Connor, to explain why certain populations are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, and offer insights into potential solutions.

May 19th, 2021

Aminatta Forna in conversation with Eula Biss, discussing her new book, The Window Seat: Notes From a Life in Motion, published by Grove Press. This event was originally broadcasted via Zoom and hosted by Josiah Luis Alderete.

May 18th, 2021

On Tuesday, May 18, 2021, the Politics and Prose independent bookstore held a live event with Aminatta Forna and Rabih Alameddine around Forna’s recently launched book, The Window Seat.

May 12th, 2021

The MedStar Health Institute for Quality and Safety hosted “Using the Power of Narratives to Address Bias in Healthcare”. The event featured a panel of MedStar Health physicians, researchers, and medical humanities leaders, including Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan.

May 10th, 2021

Ayten Tartici (American Council of Learned Societies “Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Fellow”, Georgetown Humanities Initiative) presented her most recent research at the crossroads of comparative literature, medical humanities, and racial justice. The respondent was Prof. Lakshmi Krishnan, Director of the Georgetown Medical Humanities Initiative.

May 10th, 2021

Georgetown President John J. DeGioia engaged in conversation with Nicoletta Pireddu. They discussed the value of the humanities, the interdisciplinary, cross-campus collaborations of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative, and the global outreach of comparative literature studies.

April 16th, 2021

Julia Langley spoke at the Colorado Resiliency Arts Lab (CORAL) lecture series: Enhancing Wellness for Healthcare Professionals through Engagement with the Arts, talking about how the work of the Georgetown Lombardi Arts and Humanities Program has been adapted to a virtual world during the COVID-19 pandemic.

April 12th, 2021

Discussion with Dr. Liat Ben-Moshe, of her recently published book, Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition.

February 26th, 2021

Conversation between Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and Aminatta Forna.

February 24th, 2021

Conversation between Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and Emily Mendenhall.

February 24th, 2021

On February 24, 2021, Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan presented her lecture about “Medical Humanities for the Clinician” at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center Department of Medicine Grand Rounds.

February 13th, 2021

On February, 2021, Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan presented her lecture “Revolution is Not a One-Time Event: How History of Medicine and Health Equity Can Remake Medical Education” at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center Department of Pediatrics Grand Rounds.

January 1st, 2021

Merle Eisenberg and Lee Mordechai were in conversation with John McNeill. They discussed their article “The Justinianic Plague and Global Pandemics: The Making of the Plague Concept,” which appeared in the AHR.

December 16th, 2020

In this episode John McNeill spoke with Monica H. Green, a historian of medicine and global health, about her article, “The Four Black Deaths,” which appeared in the AHR. In it, Green suggests both a broader and more nuanced understanding of how plague spread in the late medieval world.

December 9th, 2020

Conversation between Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan.

December 6th, 2020

John McNeill speaks with Merle Eisenberg and Lee Mordechai about the changes to environmental and disease history over the last half century.

November 13th, 2020

John McNeill was a guest speaker at the MIT’s “Plants and Plagues” session, which was part of the History of Now: Plagues and Pandemic free webinar course. This course focused on the history of infectious disease, looking transnationally and across disciplines at how plagues and pandemics have made an impact on human and non-human history.

October 27th, 2020

This special program of performance and discussion combined scenes performed by leading professional actors from Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning two-part epic play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes with insights from experts from the medical, political, and artistic communities on the legacy and continued resonance of the play’s portrayal of the AIDS Epidemic in the context of the current moment.

October 23rd, 2020

Dr. Christopher King was the keynote speaker at the DC Hospital Association’s 2020 Virtual Patient Safety & Quality Summit that took place between October 19 and 23, 2020. His keynote lecture was titled Racial Equity: A Prerequisite for Advancing Quality and Population Health.

October 21st, 2020

This series of conversations explored how Georgetown faculty’s research advances racial justice. The sessions considered how racial justice produces certain responsibilities for researchers. They also examined how the pursuit of justice informs the impact of the speakers’ work. Beyond focusing on individual work, they also explored how the mission of Georgetown University informs and supports this work.

October 20th, 2020

Evening with award-winning novelist and essayist, Valeria Luiselli. This event was moderated by Lannan Center Director and author Aminatta Forna and was cosponsored by the Georgetown Medical Humanities Initiative.

October 19th, 2020

In October 2020, Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan was featured in the Shakti: Powerful Feminine: A Navarātri 2020 Speaker Series. The event centered on impactful South Asian women coming from different realms but united by their energy and boldness. It was co-sponsored by Georgetown Hindu Student Association, Georgetown University’s Women’s Center, Georgetown University’s Dharmic Life, Yale University Chaplain’s Office, and Princeton University Hindu Life Program.

October 15th, 2020

What happens when supply line production of essential goods and equipment is disrupted? Can public science offer solutions? Citizen scientists and community labs are developing everything from affordable insulin to low-cost, open-source medical supplies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, maker communities such as Georgetown’s Maker Hub began producing personal protective equipment (PPE) for local healthcare facilities.

October 8th, 2020

Dr. Christopher King participated in the Promoting Health Equity and Food Security through Medically Tailored Meals the discussion, which explored the ways in which medically tailored meals help disrupt the connection between inadequate nutrition and poor health.

October 2nd, 2020

Conversation between Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and John McNeill.

September 3rd, 2020

In this event, hosted by Georgetown University Press, Georgetown College, and Georgetown University Library as part of the Books for a Better World series, Timothy Newfield talks about the history of infectious disease in the ancient world.

July 22nd, 2020

In this event, hosted by the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business as part of the Stanton Distinguished Leader Series, Maggie Little moderated a conversation with Benevolent AI CEO Ken Mulvany on how AI is helping in the fight against COVID-19. The panelists discuss how business and technology are being used to help move us out of the COVID19 crisis.

July 20th, 2020

On July 20, 2020, the Coronavirus Multispecies Reading Group invited Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan and Michelle Ogunwole to talk about racial disparities, the 1918 pandemic and COVID 19.

February 6th, 2019

On February 6 2019, Dr. Daniel Marchalik and Dr. Hunter Groninger spoke at the University of Virginia’s Medical Center Hour about emerging research on books’ benefits for doctors and trace their own experience with the Literature and Medicine Track at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.